Plainsboro residents will head to the polls on Saturday, February 19, to vote on the Plainsboro Fire District’s annual budget and elect two candidates to the Board of Commissioners.
Voters will decide whether to approve a $2.1 million budget that carries no tax increase this year. The $1.8 million proposed to be raised through taxation — as well as the tax rate of $.05 per $100 of assessed value — are the same amounts that were set by the 2010 budget.
Polls are open from 2 to 9 p.m. at the Plainsboro firehouse at 405 Plainsboro Road, at the corner of Prospect Avenue. For information or directions, call 609-799-0492.
Four candidates have filed to run for the two open seats on the board, which also will be determined during the election: Robert Brown of Aspen Drive; Philip Giusto of Rutledge Court; Michele Holder of Linden Lane; and George Krebs of Quail Ridge Drive.
Robert Brown, a 16-year resident of Plainsboro, is a train operator for New York City transit. For the last three-and-a-half years, he has been the president of the Plainsboro Fire Company and its representative to the Fire District from 2007 to 2010.
Brown and his wife Jacquelin Infante, have two sons, Dan and Conor. His father was an associate dean at Herbert Lehman College, and his mother worked for First Union Bank, which was later Wachovia and is now Wells Fargo. Brown earned his bachelor’s degree from Herbert Lehman Collage.
Brown says he is running because he wants to keep the tax rate low. He also wants “the volunteers to remain an integral and important part of the fire department as long as possible. I want to push for an increase in training on both the volunteer and career staff,” Brown added.
Philip Giusto, who is the chief information officer and vice president of IT for Ascena Retail Group (Dressbarn), has lived in Plainsboro for 20 years. He and his wife, Sue, have three daughters, Kate, Laura, and Sarah. His father was the assistant train master for the subway system in New York City.
He earned his undergraduate degree from Baruch College (City University of New York) in management, and his MBA in management from Fordham University.
He has served for 15 years as an elected member of the Board of Fire Commissioners, the last six of which he served as chairman. He is a former president and trustee and a six-year volunteer EMT for the Plainsboro Rescue Squad.
Among his listed accomplishments, Giusto includes stabilizing fire district taxes, which he did by establishing a budget process and controls to maintain the tax rate for the past seven years, he said. He also was part of the process to construct the new fire company building in 1999, which he said was designed for anticipated growth. “The building mortgage is paid off and is free of any debt,” he said.
He also lists apparatus planning as one of his accomplishments. He commissioned and adopted an Apparatus Replacement Plan that “leverages best practices and guidelines to replace all aged apparatus in a cost effective and needs-based order,” he said. “All new replacement equipment will be paid off this coming year. An aggressive capital budget was developed to offset unnecessary bond interest and resulting debt burden.”
Giusto said he is running for re-election because he wants to continue to “deliver quality fire protection and stabilize spending and taxes.” He said he also wants to continue to adopt “business-like approaches to the fire district’s operations to maintain efficiency and effectiveness” and that he wants to continue supporting the fire district’s volunteers and career staff.
Michele Holder is originally from New York and re-located to Plainsboro in 1996. Her father owned his own accounting business in Brooklyn for more than 30 years, and her mother is a retired restaurant entrepreneur currently living in Florida.
Holder and her husband, Darrin Myers, have a daughter, 20, and a son, 22, both of whom graduated from High School North. She has a bachelor’s degree in accounting and a master’s degree in finance and has held senior level executive management positions for both IBM and AT&T, where she has been employed for 17 years. At AT&T, she leads an organization of senior IT professionals in support of AT&T’s local network, provisioning, consumer, billing, sales, and marketing.
Holder served as a fire district commissioner in 2006, completing the remaining year of a three-year term. She then served a full three-year term from 2007 through 2009. She was the first woman to serve as a Plainsboro fire district commissioner. In addition, Holder has served as a volunteer with the Plainsboro Volunteer Fire Company since 2000. Before being elected as commissioner in 2007, she served as a fire company vice president for one year and president for three years. Her husband is also a volunteer with the Plainsboro Fire Company since 2000 and works in Plainsboro.
Holder said her list of accomplishments includes establishing a full-time professional day time staff response to complement the volunteers of the fire company. She was also involved in successfully negotiating a three-year contract for the professional career staff. Holder said she has also worked to maintain a stable tax rate for Plainsboro residents and worked to replace two emergency service vehicles through reserves and short-term financing with secured lower interest rates, along with the replacement of outdated gear SCBA (Self Contained Breathing Apparatus) with new state OSHA-compliant equipment.
Holder said she is running for re-election because she wants to ensure the fire tax rate does not increase for Plainsboro residents. She also wants to “provide quality fire protection service to the community through experience, trained, and knowledgeable personnel and focus on retention of volunteers and paid firefighters.”
Holder also said she wants to “raise community awareness regarding the fire district and volunteer fire company.”
George Krebs could not be reached by press time.
